Rwandan startup Insightiv Technologies has become the first winner of a competition hosted by the new HealthTech Hub Africa to mark its launch. The Insightiv team is developing a platform that combines teleradiology and artificial intelligence to allow hospitals without radiologists to send images to remote radiologists for swifter diagnosis of patients.
Visit the HealthTech Dialogue Hub series for more coverage on how to catalyze AI-driven solutions for health and care delivery. You can join the conversation using the hashtag #HealthTech.
“Medical imaging is one of the most challenging problems in the health care ecosystem — especially in Rwanda — today,” said Audace Nakeshimana, founder and executive chairman of Insightiv. In 2014, Rwanda had only 11 practicing radiologists for its population of 11 million people.
“This directly translates to the experience of patients who have different conditions. They can't get treated because they have to wait more than two weeks to know whether or not they have cancer,” Nakeshimana said, adding that those two weeks can sometimes be a matter of life and death.
Having remote access to radiologists and AI tools will help in tackling the diagnosis of some of the most life-threatening diseases, he said, adding that the competition’s $30,000 in prize money and being a part of the HealthTech Hub Africa will help bring the solution to market.
The hub — co-created by the Novartis Foundation and Norrsken Foundation — is a network for innovators to tap into as they work to tackle issues such as heart disease and breast cancer. It will initially support Insightiv and 29 other African health technology startups — both online and in person in Kigali, Rwanda — as they look to scale their solutions.
Speaking to Devex, Nakeshimana spoke more about the health challenge that Insightiv aims to tackle, the support it envisages the hub providing, and why increased investment in health tech solutions more generally is needed.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What is the main problem that Insightiv is aiming to solve?
Growing up, we heard stories about people who were sick and [didn’t] know what [they] had. Then that person [would come] home [and] they eventually die. It happens to a lot of people, especially in Africa — my grandma being one of them and actually one of my aunts. … If you really look at it, a lot of people die because of limited diagnostics.
We don't have enough radiologists. … If this problem [remains], the future is going to be worse because today you're seeing that, for example, the rate of cancer — or what some people call “modern diseases” — that used to have low prevalence … are increasing, especially in Africa. This is because of the increased modern way of life: People consume more, people get exposed to different life-threatening events, and this means that the prevalence is going to increase.
However, it's not clear currently what the solution to the lack of radiologists is going to be. These are health care specialists. It takes a very long time to train an expert who can diagnose 10 life-threatening diseases. So this is going to be very slow, at least in terms of how to have new radiologists.
We believe that technology — especially in bridging the gap between where radiologists are and where they are not — will democratize access to resources.
How has your project progressed so far?
Right now we are studying in Rwanda, and really the main reason [is that] we are Rwandan, but also we believe that we want to start by solving the problem at home. Our goal in the next few months to years is really answering the question: “How can Rwanda benefit from what we are doing?” We've made some great steps in that direction. We've had a product that has been tested by different radiologists. We've had different engagements with governments in allowing us to pilot in public hospitals, but also in improving the regulations.
We believe that if we can solve the problem at home first, we can really prove that such an innovation works. It's the same model that we want to bring to other countries that have the exact same problem.
What does winning the HealthTech Hub Africa’s competition, and becoming one of the startups to make up its network, mean for Insightiv?
By winning the competition, we got the top financial prize. And this is really going to help us — especially, No. 1, in improving our products [and helping] … us expand our investment into product development, which is critical for going to the market with a product that is ready.
The biggest benefit is really the attention that it has brought to us. We believe that working with the Norrsken Foundation and Novartis Foundation is going to allow us to get closer to the lawmakers. … For us [to have] an impact, we need to collaborate with the public health care system, which is really the biggest challenge.
Looking ahead, what do you hope to see Insightiv achieving?
I have two key hopes. The first one is that we’ll be able to demonstrate that our technology [has] made an impact. In 10 years’ time, I hope that Insightiv would have helped a lot of patients, especially in Africa — patients who today are counted as part of the undiagnosed population.
“We believe that technology — especially in bridging the gap between where radiologists are and where they are not — will democratize access to resources.”
— Audace Nakeshimana, founder and executive chairman, Insightiv TechnologiesIn 10 years, we hope to be able to reach at least … 10% of the undiagnosed population. If you look today, the current health care system only has the capacity to diagnose about 200,000 to 300,000 patients. … We believe that if one private organization like Insightiv can take over 10%, it means that we would be doing more than what the national health care system is doing today. It's an ambitious goal, and it's realistic.
What are your thoughts around the need for increased investment in health technology in Africa?
More investment is needed — not just because we are businesses, but really because of what it takes to develop a health care solution. This is not just about identifying a business opportunity and taking [it to] the market, but it's a scientific problem. We’re talking about using artificial intelligence to eventually diagnose cancer or even COVID-19. That’s something that would be great, but really, there's investment needed to do the research and development, to develop the science before that science becomes a product or becomes a business.
Visit the HealthTech Dialogue Hub series for more coverage on how to catalyze AI-driven solutions for health and care delivery. You can join the conversation using the hashtag #HealthTech.
About the author
Devex Partnerships
Thanks for reading and for your interest in Devex. In collaboration with our partners, Devex’s partnerships editorial team produces content to promote a partner’s work or perspectives on a particular issue. It gives actors across the global development sector — including nongovernmental organizations, private sector stakeholders, aid agencies and government institutions — the opportunity to go beyond traditional advertising and tell their stories in an impactful way. If you’d like to learn more about how you can shine a spotlight on a particular issue with Devex, please email partnerships@devex.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
